Drug and Alcohol Use, Misuse, and Abuse Prevention

Project Medicine Drop

The River Vale Police Department has been designated as a permanent site for the collection of unused, expired and unwanted prescription medications. River Vale Police worked in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs to establish this program, making them one of only 30 permanent sites in all of New Jersey. The Westwood Police Department is in the process of the designation.

“Project Medicine Drop” is available to all consumers in New Jersey and the drop-off sites allow the individual to safely, securely and anonymously dispose of their medications 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

For safety reasons, Project Medicine Drop can acceptonlysolid medications such as pills, patches, inhalers and similar objects. The boxes cannot accept liquids, medical waste, or syringes. To learn more about the safe storageanddisposal of medications, as well as other initiatives, visit www.NJConsumerAffairs.gov/meddrop.

The River Vale Police Department is located at 334 Rivervale Road, River Vale,NJ 07675.

Alcohol Screening

AlcoholScreening.org is a free service of Join Together, a project of the The Partnership at Drugfree.org and Boston University School of Public Health. AlcoholScreening.org helps individuals assess their own alcohol consumption patterns to determine if their drinking is likely to be harming their health or increasing their risk for future harm. Through education and referral, the site urges those whose drinking is harmful or hazardous to take positive action, and informs all adults who consume alcohol about guidelines and caveats for lower-risk drinking.

Since the launch of AlcoholScreening.org in April 2001, more than one million people have completed the screening questionnaire and received scientifically-based feedback on their drinking patterns.

Many People Who Often Abuse Painkillers Get Them from Doctors, Dealers

(From The Partnership for a DrugFree)By Join Together Staff | March 4, 2014 People who frequently abuse opioid painkillers are more likely to get the drugs from a doctor’s prescription or a dealer, rather than for free from family or friends, a new study finds. Almost one-third of people who use opioids between 200 and 365 days a year obtained the drugs from a doctor’s prescription, compared with about one-fifth of those who use opioids less than 30 days per year, Reuters reports. Frequent opioid users were more than three times as likely as less frequent users to buy the drugs from dealers, the study found. “This is the group where we really need to be targeting our efforts because they’re most at risk for overdose or dependence,” said lead author Christopher Jones, who was with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when the study was conducted. About 62 percent of less frequent opioid users got the drugs from people they knew, compared with 26 percent of frequent users. The researchers used data from a government survey on drug use, and found more than 12 million people age 12 and older used prescription opioids at least once a year to get high. The findings are published in JAMA Internal Medicine. “Many abusers of opioid pain relievers are going directly to doctors for their drugs,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a news release. “Health care providers need to screen for abuse risk and prescribe judiciously by checking past records in state prescription drug monitoring programs. It’s time we stop the source and treat the troubled.”

Safeguard Medications in your Home

Two-thirds of teens who report abuse of prescription medicine are getting them from friends, family and acquaintances. Make sure the teens in your life don't have access to your medicine. Find out how to monitor, secure and properly dispose of unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter cough medicine in your home. Visit The Partnership for a Drug Free.org for a 3 step guide to safeguard your house: Monitor, Secure and Depose.

﻿ The Rotary Club of Greater Westwood, NJ meets Thursdays 9M at the Westwood Public Library. Come join us!﻿